Ripples
by spiritgununicorn
Summary: On the eve of Summoner Braska's pilgrimage, Kimahri is told to take Yuna away from Bevelle, but the girl won't go unless she speaks with her friend one last time.


Prompt: Kidfic

Title: Ripples  
Pairing: Paine/Yuna

Rating: K+

Summary: On the eve of Summoner Braska's pilgrimage, Kimahri is told to take Yuna away from Bevelle, but the girl won't go unless she speaks with her friend one last time.

Notes: Was written for Femslash Feb, but didn't get around to posting it now. Is also posted at my AO3.

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"Yuna!" Kimahri yelled out the young girl's name as she giggled and splashed her feet in one of Bevelle's many pools.

Her legs could have gotten trapped in between the gates if she were a little more meaty. However, because she wasn't, she was able to get away with sticking her legs in and out of the gates and touching the waters that navigated through the city. It wasn't exactly the sewage area, but it was still relatively unclean.

The girl pouted as her guardian came closer, then stopped in front of her. She had already taken her legs out of the gates gingerly, and looked around for her shoes but could not find them. She glanced over at her friend who only shook her head and shrugged. Apparently, she hadn't seen them either.

"Yuna where shoes?" Kimahri asked her, but the girl only looked down at the Ronso's clawed feet instead.

He knelt down in order to scoop the girl up into his arms before looking down at her friend.

"Say bye, we must eat now."

Yuna was about to protest-she wanted to play some more!-but because of the look on Kimahri's face, she understood that it was time to go home. With another pout Yuna looked down at her friend and waved.

"See you tomorrow?"

The girl nodded. "Okay! I'll see if I can find your shoes too, okay Yuna?"

She smiled brightly before turning away from the girl and her Ronso guardian. Her long silver hair that was tied into a ponytail swung behind her as she ran off. The girl was kind of shy, but when she was approached by Yuna, she began to open up and they regarded each other as friends.

Yuna continued to wave even though the girl was no longer looking. She liked to do that until the person was out of sight, but not completely gone. She understood that she would see her friend tomorrow and the day after that. Their parting was only for a couple of hours at most.

Or so she thought.

When Yuna arrived home, she asked Kimahri to put her down. She didn't like it when he always carried her because it made her feel like she was causing him trouble. She loved Kimahri and so she liked to be put on the ground by the time they reached home. It showed her father that she was growing up and wasn't going to bother Kimahri anymore.

"Papa?" She yelled out as she pushed open the door to their home.

Yuna's father stood up from his place on the floor, and his little girl ran up to him quickly and embraced him. He gave a nod to the Ronso in both thanks and acknowledgement before kneeling down in front of his daughter. He smiled at Yuna before tapping her n the nose to make her giggle.

"Did you have fun today?"

The little girl nodded before going into great detail about her explorations with her friend. They caused a little bit of trouble for one of the summoners that were traipsing about Bevelle, but due to Paine-Yuna's friend's-quick thinking, they were able to get out of the pinch they were in. Summoner Braska took her tales in stride, listening to her with a few nods and a couple of smiles in between. It seemed like Yuna did have a lot of fun as he was hopeful that she would.

"I'm glad for that. You certainly have been enjoying yourself."

The man chuckled before someone knocked on his door, interrupting the young girl from telling her father even more tales. Braska looked up at Kimahri who ended up answering the door, and in came two of the other men that were going to be journeying with him a little later on.

Summoner Braska turned serious once he saw them and stood up yet again. He sighed a little before welcoming them, and telling them to meet him in the parlor room. There was still much to discuss before heading out.

"Kimahri...you should take Yuna for now." He smiled at the Ronso, but it did not reach his eyes.

Kimahri gave a quick nod before scooping Yuna up again.

"But I wanted to talk to Jecht and Auron!" She pouted at all of the men in hopes that it would get them to say she could stay.

Summoner Braska gave her a kiss on the forehead instead. "Perhaps later."

That was all there was to it. Yuna had been defeated and she knew it. As Kimahri walked away with her in his arms, the girl could only pout and sigh and try to mold herself against the crook of his arm. There was no reason for her to fight against her dear papa now, not when he had many things to do. Even at her young age, she understood that her papa was a very busy man.

It wasn't until two hours later was she able to go and spend time with her papa, Auron, and Jecht. Kimahri had retired to his own room in the house; his duties were to pick up tomorrow morning, and he would probably check on Yuna some time during the night. He did take care of the girl, even more so now that her mother was gone.

Yuna wandered into the parlor room as the men sat around with plans that were suddenly put away. None of their plans were secret, but because Yuna always thought that the map was more of a big picture, she usually tried to look at it for a long time, as if she would be able to commit it to memory then. Braska would rather she not try to see what plans they were mapping out for the pilgrimage; it gave him great pains to be leaving his daughter while he ventured out.

Usually, as soon as she came in, Jecht was the first one to grab a hold of her. She always ended up sitting on his lap as he told her all sorts of wonderful stories about Zanarkand, in which Auron would always interrupt because he thought it was all just fantasy, and Braska would just laugh. Yuna liked Jecht's stories, and as he was around for a whole of two weeks, all he talked about was Zanarkand and how amazing it was. He even gave a little shpiel about him being a Blitzball star as well as what his family was like.

"I wanna go to Zanarkand!" Yuna kept telling him. "I wanna watch you play!" She would giggle and then sometimes play with his hair, or tug onto the ribbon he always wore around his forehead.

"It's one of m'lucky charms. M'boy gave it to me. He's 'round your age I think." He would always laugh heartily at the end of his stories, giving them even more life than Yuna thought possible. She really did want to see his Zanarkand; she really did want to watch him play in the big stadium that was lit up at night.

Auron merely shook his head before taking Yuna away from him and telling her: "Don't listen to a word of this. No place is as beautiful as here." He would stick his tongue out at Jecht. "This is the most beautiful place in the world."

"But Zanarkand's got water and lights and all that stuff!" Yuna waved her arms around as if she understood what "all that stuff" meant. All it did was make Auron sigh in defeat and Jecht laugh because she took his side.

However, that last night as the men put away the plans and sat around the room, Yuna noticed a big change in all of them. They weren't just chatting about different kinds of grown up things. They sat quietly until she came in and they all smiled at her weirdly. The kid knew things, and she knew that they were all trying just a little too hard to be happy.

Instead of going straight to Jecht, Yuna moved over to Braska and climbed onto his shoulders. She pressed her chin against the back of his head, and said "bah bah" like it meant something. It was just gibberish that she and Paine always said to each other when they were really bored or when someone was being annoying or weird, and Yuna felt like saying it would help the situation.

The men just laughed and Braska patted Yuna's head.

"Tell me somethin' kiddo. What do ya think about the Calm?" Jecht broke the silence, and Auron took a giant breath before he opened his mouth to berate him.

"If things are nice and happy then everything's okay, right?" Yuna blinked as she answered. This seemed to calm down Auron, and Braska ended up picking Yuna over his head and onto his lap.

"Then is it alright if I bring the Calm again, Yuna?" Braska asked her as he slowly patted her head again.

"You make people happy?" She thought about it for a moment before nodding and smiling. "You've got to come back so we can have a big party! Only papa can do it! I'll cheer for you!" She smiled wide, just for him because she really believed it.

Braska smiled back, even if it was a little strained. "Okay. Only because I can do it."

Auron and Jecht said nothing. Auron understood whereas Jecht was in his own little world about returning back home once the pilgrimage was all over. Each of the men had something to worry about.

Kimahri came out of his room after a while to fetch Yuna. He usually checks on her during the night to make sure she is alright, but because she was with her father, he went to go see them both. Once he made it into the parlor, Braska looked up and nodded at him.

"Just the person I wanted to see...you'll be taking care of Yuna from now on. I suppose that means tomorrow you'll be setting off to Besaid."

Yuna had been playing with Jecht and Auron at that moment, but she heard what he'd said. "Besaid? We're not staying here?" She pouted again, displeased with the fact that she was not staying in her home.

Braska sighed. He had talked about this with the girl, but she had forgotten all of it. It also didn't help that he didn't explicitly tell her that not only he was going to be gone from Bevelle, but that she would need to be going somewhere else as well. He needed someone to look after her much better, and that would be some of his acquaintances in Besaid.

"Yuna..."

The girl's bottom lip trembled, and Auron and Jecht tried to think of things to tell her, but nothing good came up. What could they do to help this little girl? Her life was suddenly turning upside down.

"I wanna talk to Paine..." she mumbled.

"You can talk to her tomorrow." Braska told her as he knelt in front of her. "You can tell her everything tomorrow. Just...sleep for tonight and I'll take you there myself tomorrow."

"You said we were leaving tomorrow!"

"Right. But, not before we stop by Paine's. Okay?"

Yuna wibbled still, and that was when Kimahri came over to her.

"Paine best friend. She understand. She no want to see Yuna cry." He patted the girl's head, who could only nod at his logic, before following him with a sour face.

Yuna bid goodnight to her father, Auron, and Jecht before walking down to her room with Kimahri. She let him read to her so she would fall asleep, but that didn't stop a few tears from escaping her eyes. Not only would she not be able to see her father until he was done with this pilgrimage, which he explained to her only weeks ago, but she was also moving away from everything she knew.

Yuna whispered a prayer to the fayth and a wish to her mother. She just wanted everything to turn out alright. She then fell asleep and dreamed about her parents holding her, especially of her mother who had already departed to the Farplane.

The following morning, Yuna woke up bright and early. Her father had left in order to meet with the Fayth in Bevelle, and so she ended up going to Paine's with Kimahri instead. She wouldn't waste another minute before she had to leave. She was very antsy, and tugged on his hand all the way to Paine's house.

Yuna knocked on the door, and the girl's mother answered. She was pleasantly surprised to see Yuna so early and with Kimahri in tow. Usually the Ronso stayed at a distance, mainly because he was always on the watch to see if Braska was coming as well. However, that morning he stood right beside Yuna and towered over the girl's friend's mother as well.

She called Paine over to come and greet her friend, and Yuna rushed towards her as the girl came to the front door. Paine's mother giggled before asking Yuna and Kimahri to come inside of the home.

They spent a good few hours chatting: Yuna and Paine. Kimahri sat and watched them while the mother did a few chores and tried to converse with him. He only gave a few responses before they fell into comfortable silence. That is until the woman heard that Yuna was to be moving that day.

"You're leaving?!" Paine cried out before wrapping her arms around her friend in exasperation. She clung onto Yuna who clung onto her as well, and they both wibbled. Neither of them wanted to be apart from the other.

"I don't wanna go." Yuna told her, and before they knew it, they began to cry together.

Paine's mother and Kimahri tried to console them, but nothing helped until Summoner Braska came to retrieve his daughter. He looked very tired, and as Auron and Jecht moved beside him, Yuna only tried to back away with her friend Paine next to her. Neither of them didn't want to let go of the other, and they were thinking of ways to escape this torture. How could they be so cruel as to pull them apart?

"Yuna. You can always come and visit Paine again. I'll have Kimahri bring you here to come and see her." Braska looked over at the Ronso who nodded in agreement.

"But its not the same!" The girls cried out.

Braska looked at his daughter. "I am doing this for you, I swear. And one day you and Paine will get to play all day and laugh and talk and sing and play in the pools, I promise. But for now, you have to trust me and go to Besaid while I'm away. It's only until this is finished, alright?" He smiled softly at her, and Yuna finally released her friend.

"...Okay." She looked at Paine before readily hugging her tightly. "I'll see you again. Promise."

Paine's bottom lip trembled as she pouted but hugged Yuna back. "Promise. I'll make sure to give you something really good the next time I see you. Then we'll really get to hang out! Maybe stay up all night!" She giggled and so did Yuna, and the parents just smiled in relief.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Paine smiled at Yuna before abruptly leaving the room and then coming back in a rush.

She held up the pair of shoes that Yuna left the day before. Apparently, as they splashed around in the waters, two boys that constantly tried to tease the two girls had stolen them. Paine was able to obtain the shoes by getting them back. She couldn't exactly say what she did, but Yuna thanked her all the same and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek for returning them to her.

"Thanks, Paine." Yuna told her as she slipped the shoes onto her feet, replacing the ones she wore while going over to the home.

"No worries."

Yuna and Kimahri left only a few hours later after that. They began their trek with one chocobo and then slowly ended up with other methods of transportation. Yuna gave her father a heartfelt goodbye. She hugged and kissed him and told him that she suddenly didn't want to let him go, but that she knew he had to do this thing. She hugged and kissed Auron and Jecht too, and told them to be good like they always told her and to bring her back awesome presents the next time they saw her.

She waved at them as they became nothing more than specks as they shared their final night together in Bevelle. Yuna had no idea that she wouldn't see her father or Jecht ever again, alive. She didn't know that this would spurn her on to becoming a summoner later in her life, nor did she know that she wouldn't see Paine for one more year after those events.

But when she did meet Paine again, she didn't even notice it was her. The long silver hair that her friend had was suddenly short, and the smiling face that she knew of was no longer smiling as often as she did. However, it took one night as the Gullwings sat by by pyre light on the Mi'hen Highroad for her to notice the same smile that Paine had when they were children.

She felt eight again and her heart ached. "I'll see you again." She muttered.

Paine looked up and whispered, "I'm already here. Took you long enough. Minus five points, Yuna."

They both laughed as Rikku slept in one of the tents, then steadily grew closer together. Yuna ended up falling asleep on Paine's shoulder, comforted by the fact that a missing puzzle piece of her childhood was found. And a new chapter of her future began.


End file.
